to annewandering - do you really think the ban was lifted due to a commandment
from God - or a law of the people? Open your eyes and ears. And I do agree, it
would have been great to have had that singing like took place today, in a ward
meeting. We need it. Even when the Tabernacle Choir tries singing a black
gospel song, it just isn't moving. The African American soloists they use are
great and moving and sing the songs like they were meant to be sung.

I have been a member since 1959. I have never heard a racist statement from the
pulpit in ward meeting, stake meeting, general conference or for that matter in
the various ward meetings. In 1963 there was one black family in Utah Co. Now
we have two mixed families in our ward and they are well loved. Isn't it time we
tried to get over this stuff and keep harping on it. These black members in the
article are absolutely wonderful.

BYU leaders need to crack down on professors giving their own opinions like
Randy Bott did to the media. He clearly is NOT a spokesperson for the LDS
church.. If it were my decision, professor Bott would be fired over his
incredibly rascist comments which give an extremely poor perception of Church.

How do you know that "Church Leadership" speaks for
God? Who says so? You?

What about the Pope? What about Billy
Graham? What about Joel Osteen, what about other preachers and church and
religious leaders?

See that is the whole point of this argument.
Every one believes their respective church's leaders speak for God.

It is clear to me that the policy to ban blacks from having the priesthood was
in fact DOCTRINE of the LDS church that was followed very closely and taught
even in Sunday School classes and seminary and institute classes as DOCTRINE and
not as a policy.

Whether it was a policy or doctrine however
doesn't matter. The fact is, the LDS church banning blacks from the priesthood
was bonafide racism.

@Searching ... Good reply. Challenging. I'm not sure the quotes you refer to
promise complete knowledge of anything asked, else we'd have the potential to
know everything in totality, all at once, which is neither possible nor
desirable.

God's ways are not our ways. He reserves the right to
forgive anyone He chooses, for example, but demands that we forgive everyone. I
don't know why He can but I can't, but practicing that admonition takes most of
my time when the subject is forgiveness.

No, you don't misunderstand
the quotes at all, it seems to me. But maybe a bit more context is required. I'm
not certain. Your post requires more thought still. Bravo.

Your
affirmative,"God was the one who put the ban in place, not us. So if
you have an issue with it, take it up with Him, not us. God was the one who put
the ban in place, not us."

vs. the LDS Church last week,"At some point the Church stopped ordaining male members of African
descent, although there were a few exceptions. It is not known precisely why,
how or when this restriction began in the Church, but it has ended."

You claim to know why the ban came: from God. GodÂs Church says
thatÂs not known. What are we to do about your disagreement with the
ChurchÂs statement?

Since we're sharing scriptures, try this one:
D&C 58:3. "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present
time, the design of your God concerning those things..."

There
are a great many things that we don't know yet. Heavenly Father always answers
our prayers, but sometimes that answer is "not yet." Sometimes we have
to wait for the answer or explanation to come on the Lord's time. His ways are
not our ways, and judging His ways by 21st Century standards is not fair. We do
not have a perfect knowledge of all things.

And when He doesn't see
fit to give us answers yet, all we can do is pray for increased understanding,
so that eventually we can be ready to know the truth, and for increased patience
and acceptance, so that we can endure the wait.

I don't know the
origins of the priesthood ban or the reasons behind it, but I know that I'll
find out eventually. I trust in the Lord, and that's all I need right now.

The problem here is
that the Church leaders admittedly don't know either. My first quote alluded to
that, God reveals his will. Joseph Smith directed the ordination of Bro. Abel,
an African American. However, at that time there was no formal revelation about
racial restrictions to the priesthood. Brigham Young made it clear that there
are restrictions in place, yet there is no formal revelation published for that
either. After Young's death, the subsequent administration faced the question
again. They researched where the ban came from, but like the current
administration, came up empty. Again, no revelation was recorded that directed
their decision. (See "MormonismÂs Negro Doctrine: An Historical
Overview" by Lester Bush in Dialogue Magazine)

Amos's promise
about prophets, coupled with the latter-day promise that the prophet won't lead
the church astray, makes me scratch my head on this issue. Even if the ban was
merely policy, it led the Church down a racist path that deprived a large
portion of his children from the blessings of service and participation. How is
that not leading the Church astray?

May I join the speculation? I've sometimes wondered if the ban on blacks holding
the priesthood was a matter of God waiting until we were ready to live up to
our own teachings about race. I am old enough to remember how racist our society
really was even as recently as the 1970s. In those days, we owned a home that
should not have been sold to us, for the restrictive covenants banned ownership
to anyone but "white members of the Protestant faith." We were white,
but no one would think Mormons were Protestant! Of course, court decisions made
the ban unenforcable, but the subdivision was not that old, and located in the
Rocky Mountain west, not the deep south.If God is not in the business of
embarrassing His earthly leadership, He might have thought it prudent to wait
'til the accusations of racism died down. As one who lived through those times,
by 1978, the church could change policy with only the silliest critics shouting
that we were caving in to political correctness.

I am a life long believing member of The LDS Church. Everyone of my ancestors on
both sides of the family came to the Salt Lake Valley in either handcarts or
covered wagons. I do not believe that the priesthood ban was inspired by God.
One of the tenets of our faith is found in the 9th article of faith of our
church,Â ÂWe believe all that God has revealed, all that He does
now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important
things.Â God's work with the Church is an ongoing thing. The priesthood ban
was an unfortunate thing. I believe it was repudiated by the official statement
the church released that says Âwe condemn all racism both within and
without of the church.Â That may not be enough for some, but I believe in a
living church and being up to date and that many things should be relegated to
history due to the fact that we had less understanding in the past. That does
not excuses anyone but there is always a trial of faith. I apologize to my
brothers of African decent for the past of my ancestors.

"I had the promise, years ago, that I never should apostatize and bring an
evil upon this people. God revealed that through Joseph, long before he died;
and if I am not doing right, you may calculate that the lord is going to take me
home." -Brigham Young

If any prophet would lead His church
astray, He would take them before they could. There is no way for us to know why
the ban was put in place. But hey, if you believe you're intelligent enough to
question and/or judge a perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being, have
at it! I hope it works out for you.

THE FOLLOWING IS PURELY
SPECULATION ON MY PART

Perhaps allowing blacks to hold the
Priesthood at that time would have brought considerable damage or destruction
upon His church by the considerable number of actual racists in the country?
Wasn't one of the reasons the early saints were driven from Nauvoo because they
accepted and treated blacks as equals? Food for thought.